Fools Rush In
by swanskin
Summary: It all started when they were 14 and Lucy got tired of chasing after Schroeder. What happens now?
1. What Ever Happened?

Disclaimer: I don't own anything apart from the plot!

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**What Ever Happened?**

_(Spring, 14 years old)_

Schroeder stared blankly at the latest letter. Another prestigious musical academy had rejected him. His mother looked disappointed as he told her the news, while his father, oblivious as ever, merely grunted into the newspaper, uttering his favorite refrain.

"Should've thrown out that damn toy piano a long time ago."

Schroeder walked to his bedroom and unceremoniously dumped the letter into a desk drawer, where all the other rejections were kept. Then he moved purposefully to the closet containing his Beethoven busts and his beloved toy piano, where he had pinned up a sheet of paper with a list of all the schools he had applied to. He crossed out the second last name on the list. There was only one school left and any day now, Schroeder was expected another sterile rejection letter, telling him that the school appreciated that candidates worked very hard on their admissions pieces, but that there was limited admittance and unfortunately they had just felt that he wasn't right for their institution. He had read it all before – he almost had the standard template memorized by now. He wanted to shake all those admissions tutors by the neck and ask them just what exactly it was that had made him so unsuitable. He had practiced the piano for years, having traded up from his toy piano as soon as he realized that conquering his fear of it was essential in the process to becoming a great pianist. He'd even stopped practicing Beethoven only and had moved on to Chopin. After all, the Frederic Chopin International Piano Competition was how many world-famous pianists had first gained exposure and moved on to successful careers.

Twenty-six music prep schools and still nothing. Unbelievable.

Schroeder felt his fists clenching as he stared at the list. _No,_ he reminded himself, _I need to calm down. Practice makes perfect, so I just have to practice harder. I still have a lot of time to get into music school._ He flexed his fingers and sat at his piano, and pounded out the beginning of Beethoven's _Symphony No. 5_, his favorite song to play when he was angry.

It was at this exact moment that the front door burst open, with Lucy flying in, her dark hair streaming behind her. She knew exactly what the song meant in terms of Schroeder's moods, and a quick glance at the cabinet door told her all she needed to know. She looked like she was about to say something comforting, but seemed to change her mind. Shaking her head, her lips curled up in a little smile, before she settled in her usual place. Lucy knew better than to interrupt the music when Schroeder was in one of his moods.

Nobody was quite sure why her intrusion into his beloved piano playing time had been tolerated, not even Schroeder himself. Maybe it was because she was as obstinate as a mule and had refused to leave, even after Schroeder whipped his little toy piano out from under her repeatedly. Over the years, Schroeder had gone from angry to indignant, to unresponsive and aloof, but none of these reactions had ever stopped Lucy – she was like a tornado, a force to be reckoned with and her persistence, even more legendary than her crabbiness. At times, he had even been bowled over by the level of her affections. He was unable to deny her, like the time she had brought him a cupcake for Beethoven's birthday. He remembered the moment he had shouted after her, to try and clear up the confusion – that it was really he who'd kissed her, not Snoopy. Later, he was glad that the dog had taken the blame; he was sure he'd never live down the embarrassment of her telling everyone that cold, detached Schroeder had _finally_ fallen in love with her too. No, he would never be able to live it down.

He neared the end of the symphony and moved on to an old childhood favorite, _Minuet in G_. Lucy took this as the cue that he had calmed down from his previous anger, and, while tracing circles on the piano's glossy black surface, asked:

"Another one?"

Schroeder nodded, staring down at his fingers. An unnecessary move, since he knew the piece by heart, but it always reassured him to look down at the black and white keys, as he had always done as a child. Lucy sighed. Sometimes, Schroeder was just too petulant for his own good.

"I'm sure you'll get in one."

This made Schroeder pause. "There's only one left. I doubt it."

"You need to be more optimistic! Have you tried writing to them to see why they didn't take you?"

"They already rejected me! I know why too! Because I'm just not good enough!"

"But you are, Schroeder, you are!"

"I don't feel like having this conversation right now, Lucy." There was a sense of finality in his tone.

Lucy sighed again, "All right Schroeder." She stared into the piano, watching as the hammers moved to produce notes that reverberated in the silence.

There was a pause in the music. She looked up at the blonde boy expectantly. "And clean those damn fingerprints off my piano."

Frowning, she got up in search of the soft cloth that was kept in the cabinet reserved to remove any blemish on the black lacquer. She looked sad for a moment, when she saw the list of rejections, but squared her shoulders and marched back, throwing down the cloth on the floor next to Schroeder, before stepping on it. He stopped playing and looked down, his blank face never betraying any sense of puzzlement or bewilderment – he was utterly blasé. Lucy glared down at him.

"Here! Clean your piano with this! That's about all the respect you have for your beloved Beethoven and your music, isn't it? Why should I bother to polish the piano for someone who is willing to just accept that his dreams are over? You don't know why they rejected you Schroeder! It might not be because you haven't practiced enough! You practice like a robot everyday as it is! I've had it with your moping! That's all you've done ever since that first rejection! All you know is how to feel sorry for yourself because you're upset that the world doesn't recognize your talent! Well, maybe Schroeder, maybe you're just not that talented!"

Lucy stopped for breath, chest heaving, eyes blazing.

"Is that all you have to say?" He asked, quietly.

"You see? You can't even defend yourself-"

"GET OUT! NEVER COME BACK!" Schroeder shouted, banging his fists on the piano keys. "GET OUT! I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"

Lucy looked at him coldly, "Don't worry, I'm leaving." As she was about to step out of the front door, she turned back at him and said sadly,

"The Schroder I knew would never have hit his piano like that." With that, she closed the door quietly behind her.

Schroeder stared at his fists, still resting on the piano keys, for a very long time after she'd left.

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**AN:** This came out more angsty than I thought it would. Angst is pretty inherent in Lucy/Schroeder fics, but I'll try and take this off the well-worn path. I've put the Peanuts gang in a modern-day setting, since technically the strip was still running until the '90s with the cast as children. The next chapter should be coming soon.

Please review!


	2. I Don't Like It Like This

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot!

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**I Don't Like It Like This**

Finally, the last rejection letter arrived and was once again, thrown unceremoniously into the drawer, which Schroeder promptly slammed shut. Schroeder buried his face in his hands, willing himself not to cry. His mind began reasoning with him_: I'm only fourteen, I still had two years before I have to give up playing the piano for a living_, etc. – so why did it feel like this was the end of the line for him? Was Lucy right? Was he just not very good at playing the piano?

"Schroeder! You're going to be late for school!" His mother shouted up. He sighed and stood up.

Schroeder liked to ride his bike to school – it gave him time to think about music and to even hum out tunes that he hoped to compose eventually. Although he would see his friends on the way, it was generally a solitary and peaceful way to start the morning. On this particular day though, Schroeder enjoyed the scenery much less than usual – the final rejection had made his quest to become a pianist seem absolutely Sisyphean. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Lucy, who would normally blow him kisses to get a reaction from him, looking straight past him, eyes distant, as though she hadn't seen him. Schroeder put the snub down to the fact that Lucy was still mad at him for shouting at her. If he was being honest, he was just too busy wallowing in self-pity and she was usually back at her spot by his piano by the afternoon whenever they had an argument anyway.

Schroeder began to feel a little concerned when Lucy still had not reappeared by the piano by Tuesday. However, he simply shrugged and continued practicing his piano. No point worrying about a crabby girl who had insulted his playing and dirtied his piano now, was there?

By Friday morning, it was clear to Schroeder that Lucy was not coming back. It had also become increasingly clear to him that Lucy had cut him out of her life. He wasn't sure why, but a sour feeling crept up his chest at that thought.

***

Throughout the course of the week, it had become increasingly obvious to the gang that Lucy was not speaking to Schroeder. She wasn't giving him the cold shoulder _per se_ – she was acting more as though he didn't exist to her. The friends were mystified. Had Lucy finally given up on her childhood crush? They were more concerned than Schroeder was, because they saw from the way Lucy behaved, that she was perhaps just a little less spirited than she used to be and that she perhaps shouted "blockhead!" a little less often than usual.

So they all watched with interest, when Schroeder walked up to Lucy in the middle of recess to speak to her – this was an unprecedented move on Schroeder's part. He rarely paid any attention to Lucy if they had an argument, because she was usually the one who swallowed her anger and came back. They watched as Schroeder tried to speak to her, looking almost as though he was trying to placate her. Their eyes widened as she turned away from Schroeder and eventually walking into the school building when it seemed like Schroeder was going to try and speak to her again.

***

"Lucy, come on. I've already said I was sorry for shouting at you. I was in a really lousy mood that day." Schroeder said, trying to sound patient but ending up sounding exasperated (_and_, a snide little voice in his mind told him, _a little whingey_).

She turned back towards him and looked straight into his eyes. "Schroeder, it wasn't you shouting at me that made me stop talking to you. I've just had enough, I'm tired of chasing after you."

"What are you going to do then? That's all you ever do; that and pretending to be a psychiatrist. You think you're so much better than everyone, but you're not, you're just going to-"

"End up alone? Because I am such a crabby little bitch and I treat everyone as if they were below me, even my brothers? Because I like to play cruel games on my closest friends, just to see how far I can push them before they snap? Because I never treat anyone nicely, even when they actually deserve it? I've always known, Schroeder, _always_. So please, save your breath and leave me alone." She turned away and left him by the bench.

Schroeder gaped at her back. It was the first time Lucy seemed not to have her impenetrable armor of crabbiness up, and it was probably going to be the last. A sudden wave of heaviness washed over him – their friendship was over.

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**AN:** Sorry, this chapter is a lot shorter than the previous one and I don't think it's as "action-packed" as it should be, but I'm only setting the scene for the story so it should get better from here! The next chapter's basically written and just needs a bit of proof-reading so it should be up very soon.

Also, sorry for not enabling anonymous reviews, achievingcriticalmass, I just left the settings on default which disables them. I've enabled them now!

Please review!


	3. Melody of a Fallen Tree

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing but the plot!

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_**Melody of a Fallen Tree**_

(Summer, 14 years old)

They hadn't spoken for over a month now. The gang had moved from the initial awkwardness of having two of their friends completely ignoring each other's existence and had gone on to accept this as a fact of life.

Well, all except for one.

Linus van Pelt was not happy with the way things had been. While Lucy had been crabby with her regular Schroeder visits, but now she was beyond crabby, if that was even possible. For a while, it looked like Lucy had mellowed out, but she returned with a vengeance within a week, as if she had shaken herself out of a stupor. And although Lucy had stopped treating Linus like he was a cockroach, she still liked to use him as an emotional punching bag when she was in a bad mood. And Lucy had been in a foul mood for the past month.

Linus was fed up. He remembered that strange day when Lucy had run home, with a suspicious shine in her eyes and gone straight into her room. Rerun and Linus had stuck their ears at her door and heard what sounded like muffled crying. They'd exchanged a horrified look – Lucy _never_ cried. They fled when it sounded like she was heading towards the door, because if something had made their ferocious sister cry, she was bound to be in a horrific mood.

There was more cause for worry when a week after the incident, when Lucy came home and was completely silent for three days. She said nothing at meal times, didn't shout at anybody and didn't try to trip Charlie Brown over with a football.

Linus wanted to know what had happened and he wanted Lucy to spend most of her afternoons at Schroeder's again – it had at least guaranteed him a few verbal abuse-free hours each day.

With a reassuring pat of his handkerchief (made out of his beloved childhood blanket) in his pocket, Linus set off from the van Pelt house, determination set in his jaw.

***

Schroeder fought the urge to rub his eyes. He'd caught a glimpse of the trademark dark van Pelt hair sitting at his piano and had assumed it was Lucy. He had assumed wrong. He found himself looking at a younger and determined looking van Pelt – Linus.

"Um, hi, Linus?"

"Hi Schroeder."

There was a momentary pause. The boys knew each other relatively well, mainly through Lucy and baseball, but not well enough for Linus to occupy Lucy's spot at the piano, and certainly not well enough for Linus to watch Schroeder practice.

"Can I help you?"

"I just wanted to chat."

"Um, what about?"

"Don't play dumb with me Schroeder, you know exactly _who_ I mean."

Schroeder stopped playing and began toying with the piano keys, testing to see how far he could press down on them before they made a sound. "To be honest, I have no idea. We had an argument and then she just stopped talking to me."

"Well what did you say?" Linus frowned. "You always have arguments, so it must've been something big to tick her off like that!"

Schroeder knew the answer, it wasn't complicated, four words long: _I was a jerk._ But what he said was different, "I was feeling like crap from being rejected by music school, there was a little argument, and I left it alone 'cause I thought it was just another one of our usual fights. But then she was being a bitch when I tried to apologize, so we just decided that we would be better off not being friends anymore."

Linus looked unconvinced. "Oh. Is that it?"

"Yeah… Look, are you going to hang around now? I have some practicing to do."

Linus frowned and got up to leave, wondering what his sister saw in this Beethoven-obsessed blockhead.

When the door was halfway closed, the music began again.

When Linus was gone, Schroeder couldn't help but wonder why he lied.

***

"How did it go?" Charlie Brown emerged from behind the tree across the road.

"Not great. I haven't found anything out." Linus sighed as they headed towards the baseball park where the rest of the gang was.

"That's too bad, Linus. I'm sorry. Maybe you could try asking Lucy?"

Linus watched as his sister marched over to Pig-Pen, who had batted the ball into her head by accident and started shouting at him. "Thanks Charlie Brown, but I think that would probably lead to a pretty serious concussion."

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**AN:** I'm so sorry I haven't updated in such a long time - I've been kept very busy by university and life. I also reworked the direction of the story which meant that I had to rewrite everything I had done so far, which resulted in an even greater delay! On a happier note, I actually have some free time now, so fingers-crossed, the updates will be on a weekly basis from now on.

As always, please review!


	4. All Cats are Grey

_**All Cats Are Grey**_

(Spring, 15 years old)

Lucy stared at her computer screen blankly. The last thing she felt like doing was writing reams and reams of romantic advice for pre-pubescent teenage girls in her agony aunt column in the school newspaper. Who was she to dispense advice when she had spent most of her childhood chasing after someone who hadn't even held a single iota of romantic interest in her? Who was she to tell them what to do when Schroeder wasn't even speaking to her? She felt like an absolute fraud.

This stream of thought was interrupted by the slap of a hand on top of her computer monitor. "Lucy! You are supposed to be writing, not doing nothing but stare at the computer screen!" Marcie exclaimed.

Lucy rolled her eyes. Ever since Marcie had become the editor of the leisure section of the newspaper, she had become unbearable. Everyone knew that Marcie was eyeing the editor-in-chief job, but since she was only a sophomore, there was no way she was getting that position. "I was just about to write the best piece of advice I have ever come up with until you came and interrupted me."

Immediately, Marcie looked slunk away, muttering a soft "sorry".

Lucy sneered at the computer. There was no way she was being bossed around by Marcie. She was pathetic, but not _that_ pathetic. Turning her attention to the newest reader question, she scoffed and flexed her fingers, ready to type another practical but scathing piece of advice.

By the time she was done, it was five in the afternoon and she had recovered from her earlier moodiness. Whistling, she left the newsroom, feeling much happier with life (as she frequently did after unleashing her anger onto an innocent bystander).

***

"I have to say, Lucy's outdone herself this time!" Linus exclaimed loudly from behind Schroeder.

The blonde boy almost jumped up in a start and began to shove the newspaper up his shirt, before realizing it was futile. "You saw everything, didn't you?"

"What, you mean you hiding in the corner of courtyard and reading my sister's agony aunt column? If so, yes, yes I did."

Schroeder always wondered if Linus knew how much him and Lucy looked alike, particularly when they both had that big smug smile adorning their faces.

Linus raised an eyebrow and asked a little archly. "Incidentally, why _are_ you hiding in the corner reading Lucy's column?"

Schroeder's face reddened.

Linus continued on mercilessly. "Well, I'm sure Lucy will be glad to know that she can count you among her faithful readers!"

Schroeder remained quiet.

"I hesitate to guess, but did you write in a question and were you checking on her response?" Linus grinned, in a manner similar to the Cheshire Cat.

"NO! I was just…"

"Checking up on her?" Linus finished his sentence. "Schroeder, if you want to know how Lucy is, why don't you just talk to her?"

"It's not as easy as you think, Linus."

"If you say so…" Linus said, looking very skeptical.

***

Another week, another day. Lucy found herself once again staring blankly at the computer, with a visibly irritated Marcie marching towards her.

"Lucy! I've-"

"Save it Marcie! No matter how much you breathe down my neck it WON'T help you get the editor-in-chief spot so how about shutting up and letting me think?!" Lucy snapped, interrupting Marcie's ceaseless tirade and fought the urge to pump her fist in victory as Marcie left, red-faced.

It had been exactly a year now since Schroeder had been rejected from his beloved music schools, and Lucy wondered how the applications had gone this year. She hoped that he had experienced a little more success this year, but judging from the glum face she'd noticed while passing him by in the halls, there had been more rejections again. A part of Lucy wished she could help him or at least shake him by the neck and tell him that it wasn't the end of the world, but the other part of her wanted nothing to do with any of it any more.

Although she missed Schroeder, Lucy was also highly aware that she no longer spent most of her time thinking or worrying about him. Instead, she was discovering what she enjoyed doing: it was no secret that Lucy enjoyed giving advice (usually of a highly inappropriate nature) and she loved observing people (who were more often than not, squirming under her glare) and had found the agony aunt column as her new psychiatrist's booth.

Except, the column had been nothing to write home about. The problems were typically teenaged, ranging from the hackneyed (addiction to soda) to serious (depression, anorexia, self-harm and drugs). Lucy found that although she always had an answer, she didn't always have the one Marcie wanted. Still, Lucy wrote her column dutifully and found to her surprise that people were still willing to write in questions, even though her advice was often unnecessarily acerbic. The sensible conclusion of course, was that there were just a lot of masochists at her school.

And with that, she clicked open the new slew of teenage whining and flexed her fingers, tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth, as she prepared to deliver another dose of her venom, pushing all thoughts of a certain virtuoso out of her head.

***

Later that night, Lucy wondered why she was slaving away over a bowl of vanilla frosting while waiting for her tray of cupcakes to cook in the oven. She remembered overhearing Charlie Brown and Linus talking about Schroeder's school rejections and how sorry for Schroeder she'd felt. But that didn't fully explain why she was in the kitchen at midnight baking a tray of cupcakes for her ex-friend, nor did it explain why she was planning on setting off for school early to plant one in his locker, then hiding out in the newsroom until it was time for classes.

No, it didn't explain anything at all.

But that didn't stop her from carrying out her plan.

***

Schroeder looked around in homeroom, a vanilla-frosted cupcake in his hand. He was almost 100% sure about which dark-haired girl had baked him this cupcake. It tasted the same as it had all those years ago when she had remembered Beethoven's birthday.

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**AN: **Dear readers, I am so terribly sorry I haven't had the chance to update this story for such a long time! I've been suffering from a combination of real life, work and writer's block, and I'm not sure if it will get any better. But, I promise that I will finish this story - it might just take a while, so please be patient!

As per usual, please read and review!


	5. Here I Dreamt I was an Architect

_**I Dreamed I was an Architect**_

(Later that morning)

"Lucy."

She slammed her locker and whirled round, to stare straight into the chest of a certain solemn-eyed pianist. _Drat_. She'd been able to avoid Schroeder so far, but he'd caught up to her during recess. The closeness between the two of them finally registered and Lucy felt a rush of warmth around her face and averted her eyes quickly, before snapping, "What?"

"Thank you." Schroeder leaned over and kissed her cheek gently.

There were gasps and then total silence in the hallway.

Lucy looked flummoxed for a moment, but quickly realized that people were staring. It was straight out of one of those horrifically cheesy romantic comedies that Sally loved to make her watch. (Lucy would die before she told anyone about her DVD collection of the very same films which was currently hidden under her bed in a box that said "DO NOT TOUCH".)

"What?" She shouted. "Don't you people have anything better to do than to stare?"

With that, she reached out, grasped Schroeder's arm in a death grip and dragged him outside towards the bleacher stands. Once she was satisfied that they were sufficiently isolated, she glared at Schroeder, folding her arms.

"Why did you just try to humiliate me in front of everyone in school?"

Schroeder sighed, exasperated. He should have known better – something had possessed him to go up to her and kiss her. Maybe it was the soft smell of coconut that he had just happened to catch, from her hair, as she had walked by with Linus. Maybe it was the twinkle in her eye from when she had mischievously teased Charlie Brown about something or another. Or, it could have been that the milk he had with his cereal that morning had gone off. It hadn't, and Schroeder knew it hadn't, but lying to himself made this more bearable. Because, something had made him behave like a lovesick puppy and there was no way he was one. The only reason all this had bothered him was because she hadn't shown up to homeroom, otherwise–

"Fine, don't even have the courtesy to answer me. See if I care." Lucy began to storm off.

"Wait! Lucy!" He caught up with her in a few easy strides – one of the advantages Schroeder had gained with adolescence was that the top of Lucy's head only just managed to reach his shoulder.

She stopped, thinking how much she hated that he was taller now. "What?" She glared up at him.

"I know you gave me that cupcake."

"N-no I didn't." Her stammer had given her away. Lucy mentally kicked herself.

Schroeder gave a small smile. "I just wanted to thank you, that's all."

"Well, I have no idea what you're talking about. But if you're thanking someone, shouldn't you try something more conventional? Like a thank you note?"

"Who even does that any more?" Schroeder laughed.

Lucy frowned, looking offended.

There was a momentary silence.

She looked apprehensive before she spoke again. "You do realize that just because you pulled that little stunt, it doesn't automatically make us friends again?"

Schroeder's face froze into a tight-lipped mask. "I didn't think it did."

There was a significantly awkward pause between the pair, which was promptly broken by the bell, announcing homeroom.

Lucy, chewing her lip, glanced over at Schroeder, who was resolutely looking away from her. "I have class." She blurted, before darting off and leave the slight scent of coconut in her wake.

(Summer, 15 years old)

"God I hate this weather." Lucy announced, fanning herself as she flopped down on the couch and stealing the can of cola out of Linus's hand. "Thanks, little brother." She smiled cheerily at him, before taking a large gulp of the icy soda.

Linus rolled his eyes, and sighed before getting another out of the fridge and settling back into his seat. "Where've you been anyway? Shopping?"

Lucy shot him a withering look. "Actually, yes, I have been."

"I've been dragged all around town by Sally," Lucy's lips curved into a wicked smile when she saw Linus's pained expression, "-for a birthday present for her sweetest baboo."

Linus sank further down the couch, burying his face in his hands. "Oh no, oh no."

"The last thing we looked at was a baby blanket. She thinks that'll make you remember how much you liked her when you were a kid."

"She must have been remembering someone else then, I've NEVER liked her!"

Lucy laughed. "I think the lady doth protest too much!" Linus glared at her. "Admit it, you like her just a little bit!"

"NO! NO I DON'T!" Linus shouted, blushing so much that even his ears had turned red.

However, before another one of the regular van Pelt arguments could arise, Rerun burst into the house, out of breath and panting. The boy had obviously sprinted back home.

"Rerun, don't breathe like that you'll give yourself a heart attack!" Lucy exclaimed.

Rerun shook his head and continued to try and gather his breath. The two elder van Pelt siblings stared at him and waited.

What he had to say next would come as a shock to them both.

Rerun gathered himself and said, "Schroeder's been hit by a car!"

There was a mad scramble on the couch, as Lucy went up to her youngest brother and, looking shocked, asked quietly "What?"

"I saw him get in the ambulance Lucy. They said he got hit by a car!"

Lucy turned to Linus. "Are you coming to the hospital with me?"

"Of course."

"Rerun, stay at home, ok?"

"Okay Lucy."

With that, Lucy and Linus ran out, leaving a puzzled looking little boy. Yes, Schroeder had been hit by a car, but he hadn't seemed severely injured. The only reason Rerun had run home that quickly was so that he wouldn't miss his favorite cartoon, which was on right now. The boy happily clicked to the appropriate channel and took a sip from an abandoned soda can. Spongebob _and_ soda? Today was a good day for Rerun.

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**AN: **I know, I'm as surprised as you are, dear reader, that I'm updating! I can only apologize, because life has taken over completely and I had the largest case of writer's block. These are all feeble excuses, I know, and to be honest, I'm not sure if I will ever have the time to complete this, but I will do my best, so please stick with me!

As always, please review!

**PS.** I've noticed that over time I've received some requests for stories - considering the fact that I'm not doing very well with my own story already, I don't think it's a good idea for me to promise anyone anything. To all of you who have made requests, I'm very sorry - I'm very flattered you've asked, but I'm afraid I have to decline!


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